400 Minutes of Danger by Jack Heath

• Nika is halfway up the face of a glacier when she realizes it's melting from the inside and there's only a sheer face of ice that will fail soon, inundating the village in which her parents work for Doctors Without Borders. But, she's too far away. Can she find a way to save the village from catastrophe?
• While on a field trip in a national park, Charith spots a man creeping around with a gun. He tells his teacher and they hastily board the bus but the man gets ahead of them and plants a bomb in the road, severing their brake line and sending them careening down the mountain with a kid at the wheel. 
• Nancy is standing on the deck of a cruise ship when an island that shouldn't exist materializes out of the mist. Spotted by the people on shore, they are pursued and hit with missiles. But, Nancy left her dog in her cabin. Can she get down to the lower deck to save her dog without going down with the sinking ship? 

These are just a few of the short stories in 400 Minutes of Danger by Jack Heath, a middle grade book that is so tense and action-packed that I would not advise limiting it to a middle grade audience. Each story plunks the reader right at the beginning of a terrifying, taut situation in which the main character has a limited amount of time to figure out how to save someone, complete a dangerous job, or just survive. 

Highly recommended - Whether you have an action-loving child, one who doesn't love reading that you're trying to tempt, or just need a book that's great for breaking a reading slump, 400 Minutes of Danger is a perfect, fast-paced and lively, often outlandish, read. It took a while for me to realize that the stories in 400 Minutes of Danger are interconnected, as the author slowly drops clues and then nicely gathers those clues and explains them in the final story. I appreciated the way he wrapped things up but I would have also been perfectly happy if the stories had no connection because they're so entertaining. 400 Minutes of Danger is a wild ride not to be missed. 

My thanks to Sterling Children's books for the review copy! 

I have one more Jack Heath book for review and I would have been perfectly thrilled if Sterling had sent me everything he's ever written. I'll keep my copy of 400 Minutes of Danger for when I'm in a reading slump as this kind of fast-paced adventure is exactly what I need sometimes to break the spell. And, I'll be reading the next Jack Heath book, soon! 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling

Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling is the second in a series and — full disclosure — I haven't read the first: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. But I loved Momentous Events (I'm going to shorten the title, from here on out, to save time) and there were only a couple minor confusion factors, once I got into it.

Aven is starting high school and her friend Connor has moved away. It's hard enough dealing with the change of schools and all the new people but there's an extra complication for Aven: she's armless. In the first book, she moved from Kansas to a Western amusement park in Arizona. Now, her buddy Connor's absence has left her with a single friend at the new school, Zion. When a good-looking football player takes an interest in Aven, Zion warns her that he's bad news. But, Aven is friendly and she likes the attention. When things turn out badly, the experience causes Aven to lose trust and retreat from people who genuinely care for her. Who can she rely on? Who is just being nice because she has no arms or pretending to like her? Aven is a positive thinker and self-reliant, but even with her terrific attitude, the humiliation of how she's treated by people at her new school gets her down. Can she learn to trust, again, and even find love?

Highly recommended - I adored this book. Aven is a great character with realistic challenges and a terrific sense of humor. Momentous Events is entertaining and upbeat with valuable lessons and terrific characters.

I had a tiny bit of trouble with reading the books out of order, although never enough to slow me down for long and it just had to do with characters who were introduced in the first book. It took me a while to realize that Joe and Josephine were one and the same, for example, and to figure out the relationship between Joe and Aven (Josephine, aka "Joe", is Aven's grandmother). There should be no problem if you read the two in order, but at most the book could have used an introductory sentence or two to clarify who various characters were.

Momentous Events still stands alone fine, otherwise. What's important to focus on is Aven, her closest friends, and the challenges that she faces. It's easy to get behind Aven because she's so likable and interesting. I kept imagining myself in her shoes. She is tremendously adaptable — playing the guitar, eating, and doing just about everything you can imagine doing with your hands with her feet, instead. Aven is used to being stared at by curious people but it's still uncomfortable. And, yet, she is such a happy, positive little clam. You can't help but love her. I wish there were more books that portrayed people with unique challenges as just humans like anyone else, the way Momentous Events does. Reading about a character like Aven is a fantastic way to learn about what it's like to live with a disability.

I received a copy of Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus from Sterling Children's Books for review and it is by far one of the best children's books I've read, this year. My thanks to Sterling! Momentous Events would work equally well for middle grade or high school readers, in my humble opinion. Aven was in middle school in the previous book. Which, ugh, I so want to read. This book-buying ban already sucks.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.